By Isaac Yetiv, PhD
LA JOLLA, California — The Founding Fathers, fearful of “tyranny,” created, intentionally, a system of “divided government” to make impossible the concentration of power in the hands of one man or one group. But today, because of the great divisions in our society, the fierce partisanship and factionalism have led to political immobilism and almost total paralysis in the government, and to despair and cynicism among the citizenry.
The political leaders, whose main interest is to get re-elected, have developed a bad habit of “kicking the can down the road,” to avoid facing the harsh realities created in large part by their excessive spending on various onerous and wasteful programs to content this or that constituency.
It has now become customary to see our elected representatives in the Legislative and Executive branches waiting for the last minute to pass a law that would prevent catastrophe, each party blaming the other for its “intransigence.” Just in the last three years, we have witnessed the same Armageddon threat five times : in the last months of George W. Bush presidency, what was called TARP was presented as the only way to prevent a world financial calamity; Obama caught it and flew with it, adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt; then came the “stimulus” package ,close to a trillion dollars, which was touted as “the only way to save the economy, reduce the unemployment to 8% –it is now 9.2 % and rising–and fight the deficit; then the bailouts and other gimmicks; then the Obamacare with another trillion dollars.We are now in the throes of a ferocious partisan fight with the threat of “defaulting on our debts” as the calamity du jour if we do not raise the debt ceiling, with the attendant demagoguery, distortions and lies. One has the distinct impression that the fight is not over what is best for the country but over how to win a political point for the next elections.
The worst “bad habit” we need to be weaned of is the habit of borrowing. It is not different from any other addiction like gambling or heroin. Like the heroin addict, the government is asking, “please give me more money to spend and I promise to reduce my spending.” This is a contradiction in terms because, if the government wants to reduce its spending, the best way to do it is NOT to borrow more. The same Obama government that has already spent four more trillion dollars in less than three years has presented a budget two fifths of which is borrowed money, i.e. more than 42% of what we spend is a loan to be repaid with interest. This is unheard of, in fact this is the real calamity. (A previous Obama budget was rejected by the Senate 97-0, including all senators of the Pressident’s party.) Our national debt is already about 14.5 trillion dollars,and the government wants to borrow another 2.5 trillions? This is not only outrageous, it is the best road to bankruptcy. No wonder they present it at the last minute as an act of patriotic emergency duty to do it now or else… the sky will fall, there will be a “financial meltdown,” ” a shutdown of the government,” ” default on our debt,” etc.
The president resorted to scare tactics and fearmongering when he said “If we don’t raise the debt ceiling, I cannot guarantee the payment of social security checks.” This is not true because the government collects close to 200 billion dollars each month and can service the debt first, and not default, then prioritize other payments like social security, military etc…and later be forced to trim the rest, gradually, and learn to live within our means.
It is unconscionable for a government to indulge frantically in deficit spending for two and a half years, to add 3.8 trillion dollars to the national debt (from 10.5 TR left by Bush–who also spent excessively– to 14.3 TR) and then come, at the last minute, with a gun to the head of Congress, and ask to raise the debt limit by 2.5 TR more. A huge effort should be made first to cut the waste, fraud, mismanagement, duplication-multiplication of government agencies, to shut down what is not essential, to close military bases overseas that are not functional, to end the wars,to limit foreign aid
to friends and allies only when it is in the interest of national security, and other ad hoc measures.
Even now, repealing Obamacare (which has already granted 1500 waivers to many of those who have voted for it and supported it like AARP– if it was so good, why have they asked, and received, a waiver?–) , returning to the Treasury all of the money not spent of the failed “Stimulus,” lifting the moratorium on producing domestic energy, which will put half a million people to work and pay taxes, and other smaller measures, will obviate the need to feed our addiction to borrowing. Thomas Jefferson once exclaimed that, if he is asked what the federal government should be prohibited from doing, he would say: borrowing.
This situation should never occur again. Rather than a patchwork temporary solution that can be overturned by another Congress, both the Executive and the Legislative branches should work together for the good of the country and adopt a “balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.” Three quarters of the American people demand it. Who, what politician, in his sane mind, would oppose it , and still be re-elected?
The national debt limit should not be raised; to the contrary, it should be reduced and a 10-12 years plan should be put in action to eliminate it completely. As an African proverb says, “the hand that receives is always under the hand that gives.” After years of neglect, we have maneuvered ourselves into dangerous dependence on the unstable and hostile Middle-East for our energy needs, and on
ominous China, and others, for our frivolous consumption. It is time to shake off our neck the yoke of dependency.
When 50 million people are on food stamps, and 15 million people , 9.2% of the work force, are unemployed, when the underemployed are even more numerous, when the national debt passed the allowed mark of 14.3 Trillion, when because of a lack of certainty and confidence in the government, 13 Trillion American dollars are overseas and a good portion of them not repatriated because of fear, and when everyday brings with it 10,000 new “baby boomers,” with legitimate claims on medicare and social security, now is hardly the time for the government to insist on borrowing more trillions. The government is not only inefficient ( Milton Friedman: ” If you put the government in charge of the Sahara desert, in five years there will be a shortage of sand,”) it is also insatiable ( Ronald Reagan: “The government is like a baby whose alimentary canal has a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”) These are incontrovertible facts.
This crisis of “raising the debt ceiling…or else, Armageddon,” may end with another short -term compromise between the Democrats ( because they don’t want to appear as incurable big spenders) and the Republicans (because they dread being demagogued as the ones responsible for the catastrophe.) It will only show that a “divided” government is not operative anymore. Which brings me to my original idea I presented early in this series : Only a red-ribbon special commission of NON-PARTISAN members can resolve the horrible situation in which the Republic finds itself today.
(On that, see next article, which will concludes this series )
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Yetiv is a freelance writer and lecturer based in San Diego. He may be contacted at isaac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com
Yetiv is a freelance writer and lecturer based in San Diego. He may be contacted at isaac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com